 Sandy Barbour"Director of Athletics, UC Berkeley"
As Director of Athletics at the University of California, Sandy Barbour oversees an athletic department that ranks as one of the most successful in the country with a mission that seeks to match its level of excellence with that attained by the entire University.
Built upon four pillars - to teach, to serve, to compete and to excel - Cal Athletics strives to combine high athletic achievement with the academic rigors of the No. 1 public university in the country, and to do so with integrity, passion, respect, teamwork, innovation, diversity and professionalism. The department is charged not only to be a campus and community leader, but also to be a place where individuals can grow to their utmost potential.
Under Barbour's leadership, the Golden Bears have developed into a model program that has excelled in academics and increased its revenues in tickets, sponsorship and fundraising while becoming a mainstay among the top 10 in the annual Directors' Cup standings. Cal placed in that elite group for the fifth straight year, its seventh top-10 showing in the past decade, with a No. 9 finish in 2009-10, during which Cal's programs recorded a pair of NCAA runner-up finishes in men's swimming and women's rowing. The Bears were also in the top five in women's swimming (3rd), men's gymnastics (5th) and women's volleyball (5th). In all, 17 programs contributed to Cal's total.
"Sandy Barbour was my first appointment at Berkeley, and I consider it a privilege to have her as our athletic director," Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau said. "Under her leadership, our student-athletes are excelling on and off the field, supported by a department committed to excellence, equity and comprehensive compliance with the rules."
Since Barbour began her tenure in Berkeley on Sept. 15, 2004, Cal programs have captured 12 national team championships and 51 individual titles.
In 2009-10, the men's basketball team earned its first Pac-10 conference title in 50 seasons, while the women's basketball program won the Women's National Invitational Tournament.
In addition, the Golden Bear football team has appeared in seven straight bowl games, with a four-game bowl win streak from 2005-08 and a share of the Pac-10 championship for the first time in 21 seasons in 2006. Overall, Cal supports a 27-sport program with more than 800 student-athletes and a budget of approximately $70 million.
On the academic front, more than half of Cal's 27 programs maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher, with 14 of them earning cumulative GPAs higher than their historical average last year. All Bear teams also surpassed the required minimum score in the most recent Academic Progress Report, with eight teams earning perfect scores. More than 175 student-athletes have earned academic all-conference recognition in each of the last six years and over 70 percent of Jeff Tedford's first football recruiting class has graduated.
Amid these achievements, Barbour has led the department's efforts to raise funds, design and begin construction on the long awaited renovation and retrofit of California Memorial Stadium as well as the Student-Athlete High Performance Center, scheduled to open in Septemberof 2011.
One of the "100 Most Influential Women in Business" in the Bay Area according to the San Francisco Business Times, Barbour was named a regional Athletic Director of the Year for 2008-09 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), and she was a finalist for National AD of the Year at the Sports Business Awards. Barbour was previously chosen a 2006 Woman of Distinction by the East Bay Business Times and the 2006 National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) Division I-A National Administrator of the Year.
Barbour is an active member of several committees on both the national and conference levels. In July 2010 she was selected as the Pac-10 representative to the NCAA Division I Leadership Council, a four-year appointment. She chairs the Pac-10 Revenue Sharing Committee and serves on the conference's Compliance & Enforcement and Diversity Leadership Initiatives.
Barbour is also on the NACDA Executive Committee, the NCAA Diversity Leadership Strategic Planning Committee, the NCAA Women's Basketball Discussion Group and the WBCA Defensive Player of the Year Selection Committee.
In the past, Barbour has also served as the chair of the Pac-10 Budget and Finance Committee, a member of the Pac-10 Executive Committee and the Pac-10 Television Committee, as well as vice president of the conference in 2007-08.
Prior to moving to Berkeley, Barbour was the deputy director of athletics at Notre Dame, serving as the university's senior athletic administrator from July 2002 to September 2004.
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